What do once you get an offer

First, congratulations on getting an offer! It is an accomplishment and you should celebrate. Take some time off from the job search, grab a nice meal and enjoy the fact that you got an offer.

Once you’ve taken a break and celebrated, you can dig deeper into the offer and use it to your advantage. An offer letter is typically a long legal document which details out the expectations of your role, the salary, your start and end dates, your work location and any relocation stipend/benefits, any other benefits and a deadline to accept or reject the offer. If you’ve received this offer with ASIP, there are some restrictions.

Your recruiter or HR representative will be available to answer any questions you have. Also remember if they gave you an offer, they believe you’ll do a good job and want you to join their company, so you have the upper-hand in this process. After thoroughly reading your offer letter, you can reach out to your recruiter/HR representative with any clarifying questions.

Things you can ask for

  • If the offer deadline is too short, you can ask for an extension.
  • Coffee chats with current intern or employees: this is to learn more about the role and team
  • Wiggle room in the start date: you can ask to have the start date moved
  • Relocation stipend: if they don’t offer you one at first and expect you to relocate, you can always ask for it

What to do with exploding offers

You can try reaching out to the Department and check if they have any deadlines companies must follow. You could try asking for an extension but they’ll most likely tell you no. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do in this scenario other than accepting or rejecting the offer.

Offer negotiation

You can always use your offer to negotiate with other companies or even negotiate with your own company for a better salary. If you are in the interview process with other companies, you can email them with the offer deadline and ask if they can expedite the process. You don’t need to mention the name of the company who gave you the offer if you don’t want to. The companies can either say yes and expedite their process, or they can say no.

If you do manage to secure competing offers, you can send details of the higher salary offer to the company with the lower salary offer and ask if they can match the salary. Again, the company can say yes or no and you will need to decide what’s best for you. When you have competing offers, you should look at all the difference/similarities and decide which company is better for you depending on your situation.

Things you can negotiate

  • Salary
  • Signing bonus
  • Start and end dates
  • Relocation stipend
  • Vacation days (Note: most interns don’t get any vacation days)
  • Learning days (Use this to attend conferences during your internship)
  • Learning stipend (Use this to pay for conferences you attend during the internship)

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